The Mercy Protocol: Heart's Desire
by SharKohen
Summary: Deciding to take revenge on the Team, the Light initiate the Mercy Protocol - Incapacitating the Team, while forcing them live in their world of their heart's desire fulfilled. There will be distrust, betrayal, heartache. The old will fall, the new will rise. The Light wins all. Post-Invasion, but not Apokolips.
1. Chapter 1

The Mercy Protocol

Summary: Deciding that to take revenge on the Team, the Light initiate the Mercy Protocol - Incapacitating the Team, while forcing them live in their world of their heart's desire fulfilled. There will be distrust, betrayal, heartache.  
The old will fall, the new will rise. And The Light wins all. Post-Invasion, but not Apokolips.

**A/N: This is inspired a bit by the Judas Contract storyline from the old 'New Teen Titans' comics (yes, juxtapositions), and A LOT from the Justice League episode 'The Man who Had Everything.' It takes place Post-Invasion (season 2) of YJ, so … no Wally (…for now), but I won't be doing any Apokolips storyline, which is what season 3 would have covered (…for now). If you feel a dying need for an Apokolips storyline, maybe you can consider this some kind of buffer in between Post-Invasion and that, yeah?**

**Okay, storytime. Enjoy!**

**Undisclosed Location****  
****3 July 2016, 23:00 UTC**

"As planned, the Warworld has been successful in convincing the Apokolitipan Lord Darkseid to grant us audience, and undoubtedly further negotiation would be fruitful," L-1 spoke, his thickly-accented voice echoing against in the empty hall. "While there have been some...minor setbacks, all in all, everything is proceeding as planned."

"Minor setback?" L-6 put in with no small out irritation, if not a bit of worry. "Our alliance with the Reach ended badly and we were unable to retrieved the technology that we would need for our next phase. And because of the interference of those children, as of now of ours are either out of commission or incarcerated."

"While this is indeed regrettable, the main objectives have been fulfilled, " L-3 remarked evenly, though this was unremarkable, considering things went well on his end.

"Nonetheless, I do agree with Queen Bee," a feminine voice and figure took over the usual place of L-2. "Even five years ago, this Team has been a disruptor in my father's plans, and I believe it would advantageous to take them down." Her eyes hardened. "They will pay for they did to him."

"Purrr-leaseee! Your old man will be up and running when you dump him in the pit again," the ever scornful, just slightly bored voice of L-7 rang out. "Besides, it was kinda that Black Beetle's fault anyways. No biggie." Across the panels, the stand-in for L-2 glared at him, but only he responded with his usual evil grin.

"Klarion." The tone was quiet, but sharp. The witch-boy just rolled his eyes, but he did shut up, returning to stroke the orange cat rests in his arms.

"...I believe now would be good time to implement the Mercy Protocol," L-3 suggested.

There was a silence so thick one could almost cut it. The stand in for L-2 spoke first. "I'm afraid that I am unfamiliar with this ... protocol."

"Quite understandably, Mistress Al Ghul. It's a pet project mine that has been shelved for some time, so it is unlikely your father would have ever mentioned it to you," L-3 explained, his manner still cordial and calm. "Initially, the protocol had been designed to incapacitate and control the League. It was eventually discarded, in favor of the much simpler plan we had in 2010. Recently however, I have restarted work on it again, just adapting it to a newer target."

"Geez, another science-y project? Booooooring!" L-7 scoffed. Running his hand, down the back of his cat, which seemed to purr in agreement with him, he continued in his usual whiny fashion, "We'd be better off with my own project. It has so much more ... style, pain," –a glint lit up in his eyes, "_chaos_."

"Undoubtedly it would," L-1 interjected, "but Deathstroke was in charge of that project, and with him taken by the League, we cannot put into play." L-7 pouted, but L-1's reasoning was very sound, so he just sulked in his little corner, muttering inaudibly to his tabby.

L-3 was quick to follow up here. "So, I assume that I should make preparations, then?"

"Better than that, Luthor," L-1 told him, a grim yet sinister smile formed on his scarred lips. "I want you implement immediately. It is time we make the Team see the Light."

**Dakota City****  
****12 July 2016, 20:30 CDT****  
**  
_"Artemis? You've been rather quiet. You okay?"__  
_  
The blonde girl jerked back to reality, where her wineglass in her hand had warmed, yet her fingers twined around it still felt cold. Focusing her on her thoughts, she tried pull herself together.

_"I'm fine, M'gann. Spaced out for a while, I guess,"_ the usual dry voice in her mind replied, while she glanced around, trying to remember where she was. Blinking, she observed the crowds of people, all dressed in formal attire, gathered around tables of food.

Ah, yes. The wedding reception. Now it came back to her.

Lifting her glass, she brought it to her lips, allowing the lukewarm beverage to run down her throat as she allowed herself to drink in the atmosphere.

Even though this was a private reception, it still appeared as it the humongous ballroom wasn't big enough everyone in, but the lack of space didn't bother many. In fact, many took the opportunity to bond together. She noticed the younger kids, many whose names she had yet to learn, were currently engrossed in playing pranks on each other. One of the boys -the 'mini Black Lightning', - had fallen asleep on the table, and Garfield and Bart were carefully adding cookies -stolen from kitchen, no doubt,- on the growing pile on his back of his head. Connor, who had somehow been thrown in with them, could only sigh as he watched them giggling and whispering between themselves.

Somewhere not to far, the three John's of the League; Stewart, Jones and Smith, were seated together. Red Tornado had downloaded his consciousness into his human-looking counterpart for this event, perhaps keen on learning for about human customs. Not far away, Barry Allen had taken the opportunity to tell some other civilian-dressed Leaguers the most embarrassing stories about Hal Jordan, while the victim himself was busy burying his face in his arms. The manner Barry spoke in was so animated and cheerful, that only the sharpest would have noted the pained look in his eyes.

It hurt Artemis to watch him any longer, so she allowed her gaze to settle on the other end of room, Super - Clark Kent was in deep conversation with King Orin. The Atlantean King was garbed in his traditional Atlantean attire, as were L'gann and Kaldur, though former had been to wear a holographic image projector like Gar had, which displeased him.

Swinging her head to the side, she saw where all the bridesmaids had gathered- all gowned in elegant pastel coloured dresses, as not to outshine the bride.

Bridesmaid. She gazed down at the tight, beige dress she was wearing. Of course, she was one too. Why wasn't she over there then? With Barbara, and Zee, and all the other girls-

"Artemis."

It was M'gann, this time in physical form instead of just mental. She had taken on her usual 'Megan' look, donning the same bridesmaid gown. Even though she hadn't been there for the fitting, being undercover and all that, they had managed to piece together a dress for her anyway, with the help of Zee's magic, Barbara's ingenuity and Karen's amazing sewing skills.

M'gann watched her closely for a moment, before sending a mental message. _"Do you want to talk?"_

Her presence in Artemis' mind was actually comforting. While the five years on earth had in a way hardened the old naïvete, the Martian still had such great compassion for others, especially her friend, that it could not avoid warming her heart.

_"Not now. It is a party, after all."_ Artemis tried to smile, but failed. She dropped the empty glass back on the table, which would have rolled off if M'gann hadn't it back upright. With that done, she placed her own hand over Artemis, giving her a gentle squeeze. No words, mental or verbal, but it was spoke volumes.

They just stood in a while like that, without saying anything, pretty much oblivious to the clamour in the rest of the  
room.

"Oh, hello Megan! I almost forgot!" M'gann suddenly threw in outloud, slapping her forehead the way she used to. Artemis smiled despite herself. M'gann was a such good friend.

"Raquel wants to introduce you to her fianc- _husband_! Her husband!" She corrected herself, -rather over-dramatically it seemed, probably trying to tease a laugh out her friend too. "You guys haven't met, after all."

"Well, I don't have much else to do," Artemis commented, good-humouredly pushing herself to her feet. Before following M'gann to the wedding stage, she picked a box that she had brought placed on the table earlier.

Raquel was there in her beautiful, tailored-made, pearl studded silk gown, courtesy of her husband, but even in such a graceful, feminine gown couldn't take out the spunk of her.

"Artemis!" The woman, gown and all, flung herself on the blonde girl, wrapping her in tight embrace. To her credit, Artemis didn't squirm, but instead return the hug warmly.

As they separated, Artemis said, "Well, how does it feel to be the first of us to get married?"

"Old, but I'll get over it," Raquel proclaimed, feigning a martyred expression though her eyes dancing humorously. The three of them burst into laughter, though Artemis did feel a jab of sadness. She would have probably been the second...  
She pushed the thought aside quickly, hoping M'gann hadn't picked it up by accident. "So, am I going to meet the mysterious Mr Raquel Erwin?"

"That is definitely how it should be," Raquel agreed, nodding her head approvingly. Turning for a moment, she called the tall dark man behind her, who was engaged conversation to Jefferson Pierce. "Micheal, got as a sec, hun'?"

'Mr. Raquel Erwin' politely excused himself, before joining his wife's side. Linking arms with him, Raquel gestured at Artemis. "Micheal, this is Artemis, one of closest friends. Artemis, my husband Micheal."

"Nice to meet you at last," he spoke first, leaning out a large, steady hand at her. Artemis took it, returning the greeting in kind.

She had heard about him from the others; Micheal Holt, owner of CyberTech Industries, athlete, scientist, doctor, all-wrapped in one. Very good-looking, too.

"Raquel's one lucky woman, Mr. Holt," she told him, having to raise her voice slightly against the competing noise.

He looked rather amused by her comment. "Well, I consider myself the lucky one. And please, just Micheal would do."

"Flattering isn't going to get you credit, hun," Raquel interrupted, a wicked glint in her eye as wound his arm more tightly around his. Micheal Holt only returned a small mocking small, not unlike his wife's, as both of them gazed into deeply into each other's eyes.

"Ahem!" Artemis cleared her throat awkwardly before they had a chance to kiss, or anything. It felt so wrong, being on the receiving end. Waving her thoughts away, she told them, "I got you guys wedding present or sorts."

Holding out the box toward them, she opened it to reveal small wooden chest, with lacquered images onto it.

"I found this while digging through my mum's old stuff. The twin cranes on it are supposed to symbolize longevity, kind of that both of you would live long, happy lives."

"Girl, now you're really making me sound old," complained Raquel jokingly, as she took the wooden chest to admire it.

"Live with it," Artemis just answered wryly. On a more serious note, she said, "It's probably not worth a lot, but I wanted to give something meaningful, and after missing your bridal shower..."

Raquel cut her short. "Artemis, it's perfect. Thank you."  
Her voice was thick with sincerity, and perhaps... sympathy?

The conversation broke off for a moment when an squeal came from Cassie, and the bridesmaids quickly shushed her, with mysterious smirks all over their faces.

"Well, I guess the other girls want crash you now. Some crazy performance, I think," Artemis remarked, nodding at the table of excited bridesmaids.

"Oh yes!" ejaculated M'gann, clapping her hands together. "The duet!" With that said, she tore back to bridesmaid table.

"Duet?" The newly weds repeated simultaneously, puzzled. Artemis gave a small knowing chortle, fully aware of her embarrassment in store for the happy couple.

"I should wish you guys good luck, but ...nah." She shot them one last smirk, before heading off the stage. Instead of stopping at the bridesmaids' table, she made a beeline for the exit, ignoring the questioning looks she got from M'gann.

Only when she finally burst out of the ballroom did she permitted the tears to flow.

Raquel and Micheal had all the luck they could ever need. More they would ever know.

**Palo Alto**

**13 July 2016, 00:24 PDT**

"Please tell me you got that all on record."

"Every single bit of it. I even have Icon's reaction, and let me tell you it is _epic_."

"He had a reaction? That guy's as stiff as Batman. You sure?"

"Well, out of tune singing can sometimes work wonders, let me tell you-"

The communicators were all still up, just for tonight, because everyone didn't want to stop talking even after the wedding, especially the bridesmaids. M'gann didn't really contribute the whole conversation with the other girls, but she did listen on intently. She wondered if Artemis still had hers on.

Well, given how she disappeared earlier that night that would be unlikely.

Just as the wedding ended (if that was possible), M'gann had sent out a few calls, by commlink and phone, but Artemis wasn't picking up. Not that M'gann blamed her or anything; if she had learnt anything from her experiences from Gar, it was that loss was a difficult wound to close, but sometimes a friend could help.

That reminded her; she wondered how he was doing in the Watchtower. He had been complaining that he was getting acrophobia from staying on the watchtower - if that was possible for a boy who could transform into any bird he thought of. Still, she had promised him that they'd get their own place soon, probably near Uncle J'onn's, or perhaps in somewhere in Ivy Town. She made a mental note of checking out the apartments later.

As she strolled pass houses of the university town, so caught up was she in her own thoughts and the chatter of her friends that she almost didn't notice when she walked right into someone.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" She immediately apologized to the woman she had crashed in, even laughing slightly at her own carelessness. The woman, who was dressed in a black waistcoat with her brown hair falling over it, just stared at her, unfazed and emotionless. Without saying a word, she zipped past M'gann, as if the entire incident hadn't taken place at all. M'gann couldn't deny that she felt rather annoyed by that, but since no harm was done, she just straightened out her own coat and headed on.

She finally arrived at the right road. Taking another turn, she found herself at small, double decked house. Remembering that Wall- _Artemis's_ place was upstairs, she climbed the stairs up to apartment, stopping at the door. From the windows, she noted that houselights were still on, so she just knocked on the door.

"Artemis? It's M'gann," she called out. "I wanted to see if you're okay."

Hearing no reply, she tried the door. Both the screen and the door were unlocked, so she just entered, knowing that Artemis wouldn't mind that much.

The place was almost bare, save some furniture and a couple of boxes, full of various object, leaning against the walll. After Wally passed, Artemis had said there wasn't much point renting the place anymore. Brucely was nowhere in sight of course, since Artemis had dropped him off at the West's home a week ago as she packed up the place. As the cold emptiness swept around M'gann, she felt a pang of guilt. Was it right that they were celebrating when here, one of their friends, was still suffering so?

"Artemis?" She called again, but once more only silence greeted her. Making her way to the dining area, she found Artemis, keeled over at the table, her head down with her hair all over the place - from exhaustion, M'gann hoped, rather than despair. Then, she spotted a bottle of wine standing a few inches from her head, with a glass next to it. Shaking her head sadly, she headed to the table, sliding herself into the chair beside her friend. She could hear Artemis shallow breathing and was glad. There was a saying that sleep was the best cure for grief after all.

Stroking her friend's blonde hair back, M'gann caught a glimpse of her friend's face, and then she froze.

Pulling back more hair before gently turning Artemis's head, M'gann incredulity only doubled, as did her alarm.

Artemis' eyes were open, and she was _smiling_.

It wasn't the creepy wide grin from Joker gas, oh no. It was a small smile, full of _joy_ and _contentment_.

M'gann never felt so disturbed in her life. She held Artemis by the shoulders, shaking her firmly. "Artemis! Artemis!"

But the girl just stayed in her limp form, the smile still stuck on her face. M'gann tried to telepathy instead. _"Artemis? Can you hear me?"_

Again, no reply. In a matter of fact, M'gann could not even feel Artemis' presence. The Martian girl considered delving deeper into Artemis subconscious, perhaps to see if she could shock the girl awake. Then, her eyes feel on the wine bottle and the glass.

Picking up the glass, she stared at it suspiciously. Could it be that –

BBBOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

Suddenly the entire was place was shaken as M'gann found herself thrown across the kitchen. Shaking her head, she tried to clear the spots in vision. The cold, empty apartment that she had entered had suddenly transformed into an inferno, blazing flames eating up the living room, and spreading to the kitchen. Artemis had been thrown back with her, but she was still oblivious to it all, that smile still plastered from cheek to cheek. M'gann coughed, weakly trying to adapt her lungs to block out the smoke, but with so much fire around it was difficult. Mustering all the strength she could, she lifted the debris off herself, shoving it aside. She felt a slight pain on her left hand, and she glanced down at it. During the explosion, she had still been holding the glass cup. Maybe she had squeezed in shock, because all she had in her hands was a few glass fragments, staining with her own blood. It wasn't often that she bled, but she was in her human form at that time, and being engulfed in flames didn't really allow her to adapt quickly enough.

Still holding onto one of the fragment, she moved to quickly to removed the debris on her friend. She could feel sweat trickling down her forehead, and her vision was blurring, but she still worked determinedly, finally freeing her friend. Doing a brief mental scan, she was glad that whoever rented the lower level of the apartment was not home at the moment, because she was certain she couldn't make a second rescue.

Picking up the almost-lifeless body, she crashed through the apartment wall, throwing both her and Artemis out of the apartment onto the road. Had she more strength, she would move them both onto the pavement instead, but somehow she felt to tired, to weak to do anything. Lying next to the smiling, comatose Artemis, her fist tightened around the glass shard in her hand, while the other, trembling, went to her ear, pressing the button on her communicator.

"W-watchtower," she forced out a whisper, trying to focus. "Ex-explosion…Artemis…n-n-neeedd…help. Please…help."

Her arm fell back against the gravel of the road, she turned her head slightly to watch the blazing house dissolve into a blur of orange. She couldn't fight the drowsiness, the pain. Vaguely, she could hear voices in her ear, but for some reason, her brain couldn't understand it.

Eventually, she succumbed, and the world turned into black.

**A/N: There isn't any info on who Raquel's husband, so I chose Micheal Holt, who is Mr. Terrific II. If you don't, he supposed to be this like the third smartest in the dc universe. Is he a hero in this story? Maybe, maybe not.**

**Anyway, the 'heart desires' will start appearing in the next chapter, so stay tuned. By the way, if you guys have any ideas what various team member's heart desires are, you can review it or pm me (pm preferred, though). I have some ideas planned out, but I'm open to suggestions.**

**Review if you like it, Critque if you don't!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Countdown

**A/N: Hi guys, sorry to disappoint but it looks like Heart's Desires would start appearing only in the next chapter. Still, hope you enjoy this chapter anyway. But first, mailbox:**

**starwarsfan15 - Talia's in the Young Justice comics (the one that tie-in with the show) so it seemed pretty obvious to me that she would help her dearest daddy time to time. Well, nature of the Protocol hasn't been fully revealed yet, but I hope you'll like it as you learn more about it.**

**thebirdie - Thanks! I like well-written stories too!**

**Now, story time!**

* * *

**The Watchtower**

**13 July, 04:24 EST**

"How goes the research?" Aqualad asked, as he entered the laboratory.

Bumblebee was hunched over the screen of a high-powered electron microscope, examining her glass sample, leaving only to scribble a couple of notes on the floating virtual hand pad by her side, then returning for another look. Barbara on the other hand was standing in front of the central interface of the lab, with another sample of the glass sharp floating before her, running several scans on it at a time.

"Poorly, I'm afraid," she told him as he joined her. Gesturing at the screens, she explained, "Bee worked out that it's what's keeping them 'asleep', but that's it."

"The Watchtower needs to better microscopes, I swear," Bumblebee mumbled somewhere in the background. She had pulled back her cowl for comfort, and Aqualad could see frustratation written all over her face.

"I've been checking it against both Justice League and Bat Cave Database," Batgirl continued, shaking her head as she did. "All no go, though. It's like this thing doesn't exist."

"Could it be newly-synthesized? Perhaps some new creation?"

"Doubt so, its structure seems too simple."

"Sorry, guys, a little quiet here?" Bumblebee interrupted. She was trying, but they could tell she was going to blow up pretty much soon. The two Team members took their leave out of the lab, before resuming their conversation.

"So, how are the girls?" Barbara asked, as she slipped the white coat off, tucking it under her arm.

"Their conditions are stable, but they show no signs of waking," Aqualad informed her, not without a sigh. "Dr. Cross watches them now, since the Atom has other commitments for today."

"Ah, the conference. Poor Dinah." A sympathetic smirk appeared on Batgirl's face, but it quickly disappeared when she inquired further. "The smiles…?"

"Still there, I'm afraid."

Fours hours ago, Batgirl, who was at the Watchtower at the time, had received the distress signal then. The only others in Team on the Watchtower at that moment, Bumblebee, Aqualad, Superboy and La'gaan, zeta-tubed to Palo Alto immediately, fortunately before the fire brigade arrived.

They had found Artemis, with scrapes and wounds all over her, unconscious on the ground. M'gann wasn't too far away, though it seemed likely that she had collapsed later. She was comatose as well. Both of them had their eyes open, and soft gentle smile on their lips.

When the team had brought both of them back to Watchtower Infirmary, Batgirl took one look at them and said, "Poison."

Up till now, there was no evidence to confirm so, but Batgirl was still certain that it was some kind of toxin, at least. She wished the Green Lanterns didn't return to Oa; their rings could have probably given that- whatever a scan and the whole 'what' question would be solved. Martian Manhunter might have come in handy too, if he wasn't handling the racial disputes back on Mars, where M'gann should have been by now.

Of course, there were also other concerns, such as…

"Who did this? I guess it's pretty obvious Artemis was the target, and M'gann's just 'collateral'."

"Her identity is not unknown within criminal circles," Aqualad reasoned, as they headed the computer interface of that room. "Perhaps an old enemy from the past?"

"Or perhaps the most likely of the present," Batgirl proposed, her eyes narrowing. She made a gesture at the interface, bringing up the holographic screens. She gave a few more hand commands, which opened up a couple more screens showing what seemed to surveillance footage.

"I manage to hack into some of the camera feeds of the university area around Stanford. However, it's not much use, since Artemis' place is quite far off compared the dormitory areas. Less cameras there. Still," she paused one of the feeds to show seemed near the a blurred figure passing the apartment house, "it's an outside job, alright."

Aqualad asked, "Facial recognition?"

Batgirl shook her head. "Didn't look at the camera at all. Coat, skirt, shoes are the generic sort, so all I can't tell much. Could be anyone, from an assassin of the League of the Shadows to a student heading home."

"That early in the morning?"

"You've never been the college on the surface, Kal," Batgirl pointed out rather teasingly. More thoughtfully, she considered, "If it was the Light that attacked her, then why now? It's not as if they didn't have the last five years to do that."

"Perhaps in retaliation for Tigress instead?" Aqualad suggested, though he seemed doubtful about his own idea. "They've never acted on such petty reasons before though."

"It isn't their M.O.," Batgirl agreed. "Still, you can't tell with these guys. " She turned to Aqualad. "You know, if they did target Artemis for Tigress..."

"Then they would come for me as well? It does seems likely," Kaldur conceded thoughtfully. He brooded over this a while, voicing his thoughts, "I had deceived them all, perhaps even shamed them. The Light would not take that lightly. But that leave another question unanswered. Why not kill her directly instead?"

"Sometimes there are worse things than dying." They heard Bumblebee's voice behind them, and turned to face her. The girl had taken off a lab coat too, and under her other arm she carried the digital writing pad.

"Anything new?" Batgirl inquired.

"Not much, except that number one; it's some kind of parasite, yet it doesn't live in the normal cells very long, Martian or Human; Two, its in natural form, no signs of splicing or genetic modification as far as I can see. As for its effects…"

She approached the holographic interface herself, opening a few new screens before them. "There seems to be lots of neural activity going in both of them, more than there should be for supposedly 'sleeping' person. I'm gonna keep monitoring them, but for now that's all I know." She dropped her shoulders with a sigh. "Sorry guys."

"You did your best, Karen, and it's more than we can ask for," Aqualad assured her sincerely, placing a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Well, what now, Boss?"

The question somewhat surprised Aqualad; not because he hadn't taken authority before - he was the first leader of the Team, and he had several of Black Manta's men whilst undercover. It was just that - he didn't expect them to put their trust in him again so soon.

Of course, it is what people do to their leaders.

"Bumblebee, you and I will take a sample of this toxin or virus down to Star Labs. Their scientific databases are much larger than our own, and we may learn more from them. Superboy will be coming with us. I believe we would need his help."

Bumblebee nodded, though she certainly couldn't understand how Superboy fit in the picture.

"Batgirl, I want you search deeper into who the attackers are. Lagoon Boy's in the training room, and Guardian will soon be taking on Mission Control. Seek their assistance should you need it, though I'm confident you'll find much on your own."

"Thanks for the pressure, but I sure could use Robin's help," Batgirl pointed out.

Aqualad shook his head firmly. "It's been a long time since the Team had time for their ordinary lives, especially younger members, in light of recent events. I'd rather that we handle this ourselves, unless absolutely necessary."

"What about Artemis and M'gann?"

"Dr. Cross will continue to monitor them, and he will update us every so often," he informed her.

Heaving a sigh, then giving a lopsided smile, Batgirl remarked, " Well, who sleeps anymore?"

"I'll need to make a few calls to Ivy Town, get me and Mal off for a few days," Bumblebee told them, before heading to the communication central of the Tower. Batgirl made a similar move, but then Aqualad touched her arm to stop her.

"Barbara, there is a favour that I need to ask of you…"

**Ivy Town**

**13 July, 05:30 EDT**

"She's what?"

"Frankly, my friend, I did not expect such a reaction from you. But then, I suppose I should have known bet-"

"Why are you only telling me now?"

Kaldur proceeded to explain, but for someone with super-hearing, Connor was pretty good at tuning out. Jumping -no,- flying off of his bed, he threw his usual black 'S' shirt over himself, found a decent pair of pants, and yanked his leather coat off the door hook.

"How can I help?" He demanded in his communicator, promptly cutting off his leader.

He could hear a sigh from Kaldur. "We're are Star Labs, Taos."

"I'm on my way," was all Connor said in reply. It was a statement of fact, with no room for objection. Still, he switched it off, just in case.

Racing out of the dorm room, down the corridors, he wished once again that he had the power flight right now. He could leap over long distances, but somehow he felt certain that the university wouldn't appreciate having craters on their grounds.

As he took a left turn, he ran by Marvin, who was probably returning from doing last-minute catch-up on homework. "Hey, Connor- where're you goin'? The paper due at 6am!"

"Megan got caught in an accident!" was all Connor yelled at his old friend, before zipping off ahead. He hoped that he could outrun him, maybe get off the University grounds, then make some craters to the nearest Zeta-tube.

"Hey, Con, wait a sec!" Marvin was shouting behind him, his sneakers squeaking against the tiles as he pursued.

Grudgingly, Connor slowed down, turning around to meet the panting, almost breathless boy. Still gasping slightly, Marvin held up out Connor's motorcycle helmet to him, as he huffed out, "S-safety first. No... no need for ...two accidents in a...day."

Connor didn't know how to explain to his friend that he didn't need his motorcycle helmet anymore than M'gann's accident had nothing to do traffic safety, so he just took them with a nod of thanks. Besides, sometimes jumping took way too long anyway.

Picking up speed, he headed to the school garage instead. Down the lines of vehicles, he finally found his own bike, the normal red one, since having Sphere at school would attract unwanted attention. Throwing himself on, he dropped his helmet on his head, more so that traffic wardens wouldn't stop him than for anything else. Kicking start the engine, the bike sprang to life as it zoomed out of the garage.

His bike was a pretty good bike, and it could go up to 53 miles an hour if he really pushed it, but right now even the 'fasting than a speeding bullet' ability wouldn't have helped calm his nerves. He could even feel cold sweat, or at least that what it felt like, trickling down his forehead. That hardly happened, not that now wasn't a worthy occasion.

For the last year or so, he and M'gann had been distant, -and that was the mildest word for it. Recently though, things had changed, some wounds have started to heal, and he had hoped that perhaps they could-

_Screeeeech!__BONK! BONK!_

"Hey, watch it! Bozo!"

Connor would have probably cursed in return, but he realized that the other drivers weren't in the wrong. What was he doing, zipping around that curb like that? Or cutting through that line? Probably still a bit sleepy from yesterday's party. Did he ever mention that he hated parties-

_ZZROOOOMMM!_

He managed to skid to a halt just a huge truck drove right in front of him. Connor frowned. This was getting annoying.

After truck past, he started off again, but even now he had to admit there was something off. Like why was he seeing double? This never happened, except-

His eyes suddenly widened in realization.

Damn. _Kryptonite._

But where?

Sweat was reeking down his face, as he kept his gaze straight, fighting the agony with all his might. Sheer will wasn't enough though, so he stamped harder onto the accelerator, hoping against hope that he would make there before-

_WHIIIRRRR!_

That last turn was really sharp, too sharp, it sent a painful ache through his body. He was having difficulty keeping both his hands on the handles, with a shot of pain through his stomach. He could barely think straight-

His thinking was affected first. His head.

_The kryptonite was in the helmet._

Swearing, he struggled to take off his head while driving at the same time. Just as he managed to undo the clasp, a sharp pain suddenly shot through his back, causing him to cry out. Grimacing, he ripped the helmet, flinging it to the empty street on his left.

An abandoned, old college gym was before him. Relief, mixed with agony, filled Connor as his motorcycle plunged straight through the doors. Even with the helmet off, he didn't feel any better, probably due to that pain in his back. He reached to his back to pinpoint its location, and then removed what seemed like a small dart, which had stuck on him. Its tip had a slightest greenish tint -

His motorcycle was veering out of control, headed for one of the gym walls. Connor knew that the Zeta-tube was hidden between on of the old storage areas, but somehow he didn't really care. He was too tired.

As his bike hit the wall to explode into a burst of flame, his last thoughts was wondering why Marvin would hand him a helmet full of Kryptonite dust.

Some distance away, above on one the university building near the street, a man dressed in dark red and black body suit was stood, with one foot on the roof. He gave a grim grunt of satisfaction as he put down the small blowgun back in one of his coat compartments. He didn't usually like blowguns, but his client was very specific about what weapon to use, even giving him the dart and the gun in person.

Well, the job was done, so he did what he did best. Pressing the communicator against his ear, he spoke, "Mission Accomplished. I expect to have my payment to be transferred by noon?

A mechanical voice – he assumed she used a filter to hide her identity, as many of his clients did, - spoke back through the com. "It will be as you say, Mr. Lawton."

**Chicago**

**13 July, 06:46 CDT **

Garfield gave long yawn as he flung open his room door. Pricking up his ears to listen, he heaved a sigh of disappointment as he trudged down the corridor, straight to the kitchen. It wasn't that he expected anyone home; M'gann had probably left early for Ivy Town already, and J'onn was off-world for League business, having left after the wedding yesterday. That's why he offered the apartment to M'gann for the times being, and after a considerable amount of begging, M'gann in turn had 'invited' him for a stay over, provided he woke himself and get to school on time. Well, good thing Zeta-tubes existed.

He went up to the kitchen counter, whipping open the side cupboards for any treats. Most of the shelves were filled with Oreos of course, given M'gann shared her love for them with Uncle, but Garfield dismissed that option. He figured that if you wanted to chocolate cookies, you don'f dyed them black.

That's why he went straight for the tin of cookies on the upper shelf. It was a bit high up, so he morphed himself into a monkey, agile enough scurry up to the sides of the shelves, then back down again, with his tail wrapped around the desired tin.

Of course, human tools were made for human hands, so he slipped back to human hands, eagerly unscrewing the lid, taking out one of the chocolate chip cookies, and then sunk his teeth into it, letting the crumbs melt his mouth. Content, he threw himself into a chair, while his free hand went automatically to find the newspaper.

He didn't find though, since the table was bare.

"O-kay, that's weird," he commented to himself, his face scrunched up in puzzlement. He took a munch as he pondered over this. M'gann always put the newspaper on table, since she was trying to encourage him to spend less time in front of the television and more on reading.

Suddenly, his ears perked up, catching a stray sound in the room. Jumping out of his seat, he leapt back into his room. Ignoring that he was breaking one of M'gann's house rules, he continued munching his cookie, while using his other hand and his tail to search through his bedcovers.  
Finally, he found the little device. He had to remember to take off before going sleep, seriously, if not this was really to end up a routine.  
Placing it on his ear, he hit the switch. "Good morning, this is Beast Boy speaking. Yes, in a matter of fact, Adriane, it does seem that we'll be having cloudy weather today-"

"Beast Boy, not now." The seriousness of Batgirl's tone was enough to shut him up, though it didn't stop him from taking another bite of chocolate chip awesomeness. "Listen first, questions later. Understood?"

Garfield took a gulp. A sense of trepidation swept over him, as the girl on line spoke again.

"Yesterday, there was an attack on Artemis' house. M'gann was there, and got them both out, but not without hurting herself."

Garfield felt a knot his stomach, and he wanted to gab out a flurry of questions, but he just kept quiet, listening. He didn't notice, but his hands were shaking slightly.

"Both of them are still unconscious, and I suspect poisoning maybe involved, though what it is I have yet to trace."

An odd tingling sensation ran down his arm, and to his surprise he had actually dropped his cookie on his blanket. Oh great, now M'gann was kill h-

"Listen Gar, I know you probably scared, but I want you to know that M'gann's in stable condition. In a matter of fact, she actually seems kind of ...peaceful."

Strange thoughts, no, strange fragments of thoughts started running about his mind. Why was he feeling so sleepy? Why couldn't he feel his feet? Why did everything look like squiggles and shapes?

And what was this strange voice ringing in his head?

"She'll be alright eventually, when we find the cure - and we will find the cure. For now, I need you stay brave. Just go to school for now, and you can see her after, okay? Gar? Are you on? Gar?"

All that Batgirl heard in reply was a massive wave of radio feedback, as Garfield Logan crumpled to the ground like a rag doll.

**A/N: If you don't who Mr. Lawton is, Google him and it'll make sense. I didn't even need to drag him from the mainstream dc universe, since he made an appearance in the Young Justice Comics (the ones in line with show by Grieg Weismann). **

**For the 'inter-racial disputes on Mars', I just made that up. I don't know if it happened in the mainstream universe, but I need something to get rid of Martian Manhunter. And the GLs. So … yeah. **

**If you ask, why Krpytonite dust in Connor's helmet? Well, …Connor does have super-hearing…**

**Anyway, who's Lawton's employer? Could it be that brown-haired woman in the video Batgirl found? Am I that obvious?**

**Stay tuned, 'cause from now, it only gets worse…**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: 12 Hours of Radio Blackout

**Hey, sorry for the super late update! I've been caught up in school stuff, yeah…**

**Good news: Heart's Desire are starting to feature. Bad news: I've been really tired these days, so I'm not sure if I've been writing these right. Well, you'll see.**

**Mailbox:**

**Awsomaniatic: Your predictions are fairly accurate, but the 'hows' of these 'attacks' is what's gonna be not so predictable…**

**Veritas1995: Oh really? Great! Fits the story! **

**Since I haven't updated this in ages, I shall put a summary of the two other chapters: **

Artemis and M'gann are both in comatose after an attack on Artemis' House, due to being poisoned by an unknown toxin. Batgirl is investigating into who the attacker/s are, while Bumblebee and Aqualad are finding out more about the toxin. Still, things are getting more confusing after Beast Boy and Superboy got attacked… in their civvies!

What _is_ going on?

**Okay, here it goes!**

"Artemis, you up yet?"

When her eyes shot open, Artemis found herself staring at the familiar grey of the ceiling. Tiredly, yet eagerly, she forced herself upright, gasping in relief. Her hands were still clinging on the covers, trembling.

She didn't sleep well. The nightmares she had – they had been really vivid. Shaking still, she pushed to covers back further, going on her knees as she twisted herself to face the window behind bed head. Drawing up the blinds, she peered through the glass. Even in daylight, Gotham had decrepit, dusty feel to it, with rubbish stashed in corners, cracks along the walls, and people staggering through the streets in grim silence.

Just her kind of town.

A smile came to her lips. Stanford was great, of course, but she had always felt it was too busy being ... well, _classy_; full of intellectual debates, and lofty idealism, and abstract notions. But Gotham? Gotham was real.

"Well, someone's finally awake."

Turning back, Artemis' eye fell all the tall her, muscular brunette standing at the doorway of the bedroom, arms folded.

Artemis' eyes widened with recognition. "Jade?"

"The one and only," the girl smirked.

Scurrying off her bed, Artemis found her scooting over enthusiastically – perhaps a little too much, - before enfolding Jade in crushing embrace.

"It's so good to see you!"

"Yeah, you too, heh," said Jade, with a mixture amusement and discomfort. Still, she did give Artemis a little pat on the back.

Suddenly, a sense of uneasiness crept up Artemis, and rapidly she unlatched herself from Jade. "Err..., sorry," she mumbled awkwardly. The odd feeling didn't go away still, and the deeper Artemis stared into her sister's eyes, the more she felt that horrid queasiness in her gut.

Jade's eye hardened. "Is there's something wrong?"

"It's...nothing."

"Artemis," Jade's expression was all seriousness, "I'm your sister. If there's something wrong, you can't hide it from me."

Wringing her arm in uncertainty, the blonde girl turned away for a moment. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"Same as you. Mum asked me to visit, though she didn't ask for a sleepover, like you did. She does miss having her girls around," Jade replied, carelessly jumping back onto her old bed. Still, the look she cast at her sister was anything but. "Artemis, you know you can tell me anything."

Heaving a sigh, Artemis dropped down back on her own bed, crossing her legs. Lifiting her head, grey eyes met black. For some reason, at the back of her head, Artemis felt that she had a need to wary around her, yet logical part of her knew that she could trust this person entirely.

They were sisters, after all.

"I had this awful dream. It's all a blur now of course, but I remember some bits. There were fights, and betrayal, and failure, and most of the time I felt so afraid, angry and overwhelmed by everything."

Jade's face scrunched up into a frown. "Uh-huh."

"I can't exactly remember what really happened, and I think we sort of won-"

"We?" Jade interrupted.

"The Team," Artemis explained.

"Oh, of course, it couldn't have me in it," Jade huffed ungraciously, but the way she leaned forward made it clear she was all ears.

"-but winning came at a price. I-I think I lost someone." She had to stop here because she couldn't remember exactly what it else was in the dream, ….or

maybe it was that lump at the back of her throat.

There was silence as both sisters just sat, staring at each other. Then a wicked expression crossed Jade's face. Drawing herself upright and crossing her legs, stretching her arms to knees then closing her eyes, she intoned in a deep, wise-sounding voice, "Maybe if you look deep into your soul-"

"You're going to mock me aren't you?" interrupted Artemis, suspicion creeping on her face.

"-you'll find that your dreams are telling you a greater truth about yourself and the world, one that you have not come to terms with,- "

"Great, I knew it." Resignedly, the blonde girl buried her face in her arms, but she couldn't help smiling. Just like Jade to poke-fun at everything she did.

"Not my fault you seriously over-think all this."

"Fine, fine!" Artemis answered crossly, unfolding herself to wave her sister away. Honestly though, she could the discomfort in her subsided a little, replaced instead by an emerging chuckle somewhere inside her.

"Look, you've just had a really bad dream. It happens. Take a few breaths of musty Gotham air and you'll get your head straight. If it doesn't work out, well,"- Jade shrugged her shoulders, " you can always kill yourself."

"Thank you, great master, for your unearthly wisdom." Artemis gave a sardonic grin. "I feel _so_ much better." Though her words were laced sarcasm, she was surprised at how true that was. She _did_ feel much better. It was good to sitting around with Jade again.

"That's what I do," the brunette girl shot back, grinning herself. "Now get yourself cleaned up. Mum wants you out ASAP."

"Bossing me around, just like old times," muttered the blonde disparagingly, as she slid herself off the bed. "Lovely."

"Totally," said her sister in a flippant manner, as she spun around, heading to the door. Just as she was about to close the door, Artemis called out, " Hey, Jade."

Popping her head, Jade asked, "Yeah?"

"Thanks for listening."

"No prob. After all, what kind of sister would I be if I wasn't always there for you?"

* * *

**Watchtower****  
****13 July, 07:30 EST **

_In a remote control room, somewhere within the Watchtower…_

A small computer screen lit up, blinking. Words, typed in red capital letters, flashed on the screen, over and over.

_Initiating Silencer for all B-communicators. 01:30 min…Initiating Silencer for all B-communicators. 01:29 min…Initiating Silencer for all B-communicators. 01:28 min…_

_At the Central Computer Interface_

"…_delegates from all nations are all arriving for this phenomenal event. Oh! Noor Harjavti, daughter of the late Rumaan Harjavti of Qurac, is now emerging from a car. Ms Harjavti is quite well known for her involvement…"_

"Looks like there's a party waiting already," Captain Marvel noted, pointing at the holographic window for GBS news channel. Cat Grant was on screen, as usual, reporting about the details of the conference, as throngs of reporters were seen entering the U.N. building behind her. "Seems like every new station in the world's go'nna be in there - hey, look! WHIZ Radio's there too! Awesome!"

Leaning over to get a closer glimpse for himself, Captain Atom made a huff of annoyance. "Perfect."

Black Canary didn't say anything, only folding her arms. She, and a few other prominent members of the Justice League, was getting ready for the big conference at U.N. this afternoon, chaired by _Lex Luthor _of all people. Superman had requested to be excused, which Black Canary forbade, and Batman just excused himself on the premise that 'Gotham needed him', which Black Canary wished she could forbid.

Her brow furrowed. The Justice League didn't have time for this conference; there were other matters that had to tackled; the Warworld that the other members had seen in Rimbor, for one; then there was the Light, at those who remained on Earth.

Then there were the racial wars on Mars. J'onn sounded genuinely concerned about the whole event. From what he had learnt from B'arzz O'oomm – that is the ex-Green Beetle, it started small, but it not tackled immediately, it was going to blow out of proportion. She wondered how M'gann had been reacting to it – not that that matter right now.

Speaking of which –

"How are they?" She directed that question to the African-American boy heading the Mission Control. He was just Mal Duncan today; true, Guardian's persona allowed him to get in the action, which she didn't doubt he preferred, but when the Team needed technical support, Mal would be there to provide it.

"Physically? They're swell. Dr. Cross just managed to work out that M'gann's didn't revert back to her natural form was simply because her mental hold of over is still strong – that's good 'cause it means that it isn't a side effect of the 'toxin', and her mental sides' likely to be functioning fine too. Huh, well actually there isn't any proof of that…"

"But we _will_ hope for the best," Canary told him, her voice firm and kind. "The girls are strong. They'll pull through."

"_Wonder Woman to Black Canary."_ Diana's voice came through her communicator, _" I believe it is time."_

"Got it." She turned to the two others. "It's time."

No one said, but all of them knew how important the conference was. Considering the building mistrust of the people for the Justice League, this was the moment that everything they did and said was going to straighten the crinkles – or tear all of it apart.

"Good luck, for all our sake," Mal wished them with all sincerity.

With a parting nod, Black Canary led the others to the Zeta Tube. Punching in the coordinates, _anticipation_ didn't even begin to describe what she felt.

**Palo Alto****  
****13 July, 05:12 PDT**

Puzzles are said to have psychological benefits by giving those who solve it a tremendous sense of achievement, and hence satisfaction, which is what makes them so magnificently popular in games.

However, there was always a catch; if you couldn't solve the puzzle, then you hit the dead-end; it becomes the continuous plague of your life until you throw your hands up in disgust before finally giving up and walking away.

That's exactly how Batgirl felt like doing right now; the dried wine, the debris, the explosion – none of it was fitting together. She considered herself a pretty good riddle solver, but even she had she couldn't make any sense of it.

In addition, Garfield suddenly hanging up on her gave her a great sense of uneasiness. Still, since the cops would come inside the building soon, reconnaissance on the attack site was at the priority, as Aqualad had told when she informed him of this.

So here she was; standing in ash and rubble, with a Bat-scanner in hand, agonizingly piecing together the events that occurred. So far all she had learnt just confirmed what she already knew; the infection came from the wine. Dr. Cross' checks had confirmed that Artemis had just recently taken alcohol before getting knockout –presumably by the toxin. And that glass shard in M'gann's hand? It had stains of alcohol on it.

But then, there were scraps of metal that were sitting at her feet. The explosion, the fire…and that's where it stopped adding up.

Then, if the toxin was meant to drug her and the explosion meant to kill her, then why Artemis hasn't woken up yet? Obviously, this meant that toxin was no ordinary sleeping pill, as proven by Karen's study on it and considering how it didn't turn up on League database.

Okay, so toxin was chosen with a specific purpose, which is possibly to put it victims in perpetual slumber – who could say. Then, why the explosion at all? Or as Kaldur put it,'Why not kill her directly instead?'

It wasn't that she enjoyed brooding over morbid thoughts, but Batman taught to always consider the other perspective.

The problem was, try as she might, she still couldn't see the bigger picture.

"Batgirl to Team," she spoke through the communicator on her ear. "Recon complete, but nothing conclusive. I'm going to check on Garfield."

There was a pause, then she heard Mal's voice, "Alright, but call if you need the assist."

"Got it." Within seconds, she was swinging agile out of the shattered glass window, making a double somersault in the air before dropping gracefully onto the floor.

Scurrying her way to the bush where she hid Bat-bike, Batgirl contemplated over Mal's words. After all, all her pondering hasn't gotten her anywhere. She needed someone to bring in 'the other perspective'.

The first name she thought of was Robin. But then, Kaldur had been adamant that the younger members were spared today, at least. Lord knows they needed it after the whole the Reach Invasion ate up their lives.

She bit her lip. Today was meant to break for the _whole_ Team. She did have plans to go shopping with her roommate today, and then visit her dad for dinner. Looks like that wasn't going to happen after all, but still… that didn't mean she had to ruin Tim's plans; he had been rather nervo - ahem, _excited_ about it.

Sighing, she considered her other options. Batman was occupied, that she knew for sure. After leaving Earth for sometime for Trials on Rimbor, gang-wars had been escalating exponentially, and with Tim and herself caught up with the Reach, there hasn't been anyone to clean it up yet.

That left one member of Bat-clan left. She narrowed her eyes. He was't going to like it, but then, she wasn't going to give him that choice. The team needed him, so he'd be extremely sorry if he didn't pick up…

**The Watchtower,****  
****7:35 EST**

_Training Room_

He swung a punch at the droid. Again. And again.

Finally, the metal joints gave way and even against the current, it went zooming till it crashed into the wall.

"_Lagoon Boy, -7". _He saw the red holographic scoreboard popping up in front of him, listing the dozens of errors he had made during the combat session, mostly to do with him using lethal force. He tried waving them away, not that it worked. So instead he kicked the remaining droid parts as hard he could, sending it flying to the wall too.

He was still gasping heavily, so tried to take a deep breath through his gills instead. That was troubling – he didn't usually gasp that much when he was underwater, in matter of fact that was something he did on surface. Maybe it was the water. Even at 3.5% salinity, he could still feel the difference. And the pressure was too low. The training room, even with its state of the art technology, couldn't replicate the feeling of the ocean.

Aqualad had agreed that he would with train him in underwater combat at the watchtower today. L'gann was proud, but he wasn't pompous enough to believe him fighting abilities were fantastic. Besides, he was keen to speak to Kaldur again – the _real _Aqualad, not the traitor that he had believed to him to be for so long.

Then, that matter of Artemis and M'gann came up.

M'gann…

He knew they broke up already, but that didn't mean that he didn't still care for her. He hated seeing her like that – lying comatose on the infirmary bed with that smile. She didn't deserved this. Maybe she felt guilty that she only dated him because he made her feel good, but then, didn't she consider that he dated her because she made him feel good too?

With M'gann, he didn't feel like some gross, green monster from underwater hell. Neptune's Beard, even in Atlantis, people scorned his appearance, calling him the 'impure'. M'gann understood that; she faced those problems before.

He sank himself to floor of the training room. Not that it mattered anymore; soon M'gann would be back with her perfect-looking, muscular, eye-candy of a Superboy. L'gann's webbed hands balled into fists, and then he sighed, relaxing his arms.

He couldn't blame her. What was he in comparison? An ugly, green amphibious fish-boy with subpar magical abilities. An ordinary Atlantean boy, with no meta abilities to offer.

No, even Aqualad was ordinary by Atlantean standards, but somehow he rose above that. He wasn't a great sorcerer, but somehow there was something about him that made him such a strong leader, such a hero, just by virtue of being himself.

And what would Lagoon Boy be? A leader? A hero?

No.

He was just a fish of out of water.

Being so absorbed in his thoughts, he didn't notice when it started, but eventually it became apparent enough that his gasping was not subsiding. He allowed himself to taste the water. It seemed fine, but if it was, why was his body reacting this way?

L'gann grimaced. He was no genius, but he knew when he should take his leave.

Swimming towards the door of the training room, he hit the button for opening the catch. It didn't open though, so hit again.

And again.

And again.

Dizziness was setting in, and an odd queasiness was setting in. Breathing, even in water, felt difficult. Slamming against the open button one last time, he swam over to a glass panel with label with 'emergency' over it. He cursed himself for forgetting to bring his communicator in, though he knew it was directly against Aqualad's orders. Still, perhaps it changed nothing.

Punching as hard as he could, it took three blows with the glass cracked. He could feel his entire body going numb now, and it took all his concentration and willpower just to push that red button.

Less than second later, he was drifting, unconscious, in 3.5% salinity and 0.5% of something else.

_Mission Control_

Mal continued watching the broadcast, his back hunched and his expression grim.

Abruptly, a voice buzzed in his ear. _"Mal? Are you there"_

"What's up, Kaldur?"

Kaldur started to explain, "I had contacted Superboy some time ago, but he has yet to arrive-"

"I'm on it," Mal cut in, hurriedly running a check on surveillance. He didn't really mean to cut Aqualad off like that – not that he didn't know exactly what to do - but perhaps, in all honesty, he had yet to accustom himself with 'Kaldur, Artemis' murderer' as really being 'Aqualad, the friend'. Nightwing's deception had been good; yes, too good.

Tapping his foot impatiently as the little screens appeared around, loading some of the surveillances footage they had Ivy Town. One of them stood out, since its colour scheme consist of lots of orange, red, and grey.

Mal's jaw dropped in horror. "Aqualad! Superboy's been attacked. The gym where the Zeta-tube is hidden in-"

Suddenly, there was a high-pitched squeal in his earpiece, followed by a massive wave of radio feedback, then silence.

"Aqualad, you readin' me? Aqualad? Kal?"

The line was dead. Damn.

Yanking the communicator off his ear, Mal gestured at the screen, hoping that he could use the computer interface communicator instead, but for some reason it wasn't loading.

"Aw, c'mon!" He yelled, shaking his fist at the holographic screens, half wishing it was a good old desktop just so he could punch it. Not that would help Superboy right now.

Cursing vehemently under his breath, he ran as quickly as he could, straight to the Zeta-tube. Punching in the coordinates, he wished that he had worn the Guardian armor to work instead.

Just at the moment the tubes started scrambling his molecules, a new emergency alert appeared on the Mission Control from one of the training rooms.

No one heard it though, since there was only one person in the Watchtower now.

_In a remote room, somewhere within the Watchtower…_

The small computer was still blinking. New red words had replaced the old ones.

_Radio Blackout for all B-communicators initiation successful. Countdown: 12:00_

* * *

"Wait. Let me get this straight. You took all this time to prepare this, told me some crap about 'missing my girls', just to throw a surprise party?"

"Artemis, I think this was _actually_ the part you were supposed to thank your mother."

"Well, I _do_ miss my girls, and it _is_ my daughter's 20th birthday! So, sue me if I want to celebrate it!"

"Roy, could you please change Lian's diaper?"

"Why?"

"Because I've been doing it for the last four hours. It's your turn"

"Grrr…"

"What was that?"

"…Nothing."

"I suggest that you do as she says, son. The women of this house are dangerous."

"Dad!"

"What?"

"Lawrence, pass the matches please."

"C'mon, sing the stupid song already! If not, I'm going to start eating the cake."

"Hey! _My_ cake, _my_ rules!"

"And I thought little Miss Snotty Stanford _didn't_ want a birthday party."

"Can you _children_ try not to distract me?" called out Mrs. Crock, with a mixture irritability and jollity. She was standing over the cake, trying to block out the wind as she lit the candles.

"Mum, let me do it," Artemis said, reaching out to take the matchbox, but Mrs. Crock shook her away.

"I lit your cake went you were 10, so I'm go'nna do light it when you're 20, now if you don't mind…" – leaning over, she carefully brought the matchstick to over the 20 green candles, green since it was Artemis' favourite colour, until 20 small balls of flame were dancing over the green cake.

"Roy's back." Jade mentioned as the red-head man re-entered the dining room.

"Great. Now we can start singing."

The song was hideously out of tune, especially when her dad and Jade started competing about who could sing it at a higher pitch (Jade won of course, by virtue of being female), and Roy's attempt were half-hearted, since he was trying to feed Lian and she was trying not to be fed. Artemis gave a little chortle. Oh, it was wonderful to watch the bad-ass 'Red Arrow' reduced to the frustrated father.

Her mother was the only who doing it properly, clapping her hands to the beat as she sang. She wasn't certain why, but Artemis found it rather strange to be looking up to her mother. She supposed she never noticed how tall her mother was before.

The ear torture was finally over, dissolving into claps and cheers.

"Okay, _now_ can we eat the cake?" Jade groaned dramatically, reaching out for the knife.

Her mother slapped her hand away. "Jade! Wishes first, _then_ blowing of candles, _then_ the cutting of cake."

"Mum, it's just cake, don't need to be so dogmatic about it."

"I am not dogmatic!"

"Ignore the old hens," her father told her. Giving her wink, he said, "Make wish, baby girl."

She knew this was a silly little ceremony, but Artemis closed her eyes anyway. Almost immediately, she made her wish. She knew exactly what she wanted after all.

Opening her eyes, she sucked in a breath. However, before she could release it, a sudden gush of wind swept over the table, blowing out all the candles in one go.

"…And there goes all my effort," her mum remarked disapprovingly.

"Oh, no." That's all her father muttered, as his fingers went to his temple.

Jade just rolled her eyes, and Roy sighed, re-adjusting Lian on his arm.

Artemis just grinned.

She heard a familiar voice behind her. "Oooh, what's the cake flavour? Can I have slice? Please! Running on fumes here."

Giving a mirthful chortle, she swung herself around, facing the party-crasher.

"Hello, Wally."

**Hoped you like the first Heart Desire! Yeah, I supposed the whole 'attack on the Team' thing is dragging quite some bit, but that's coz I have such wonderful plans for it! Or I tell myself I do. **

**What is 'Tim's plan'? And who is Batgirl gonna calling? Well, it'll soon be seen. **

**I'll try to update soon, but don't count on it. There's a lot of work coming my way. But don't worry. This isn't a story that I'll quit. **

**After all, what's more fun that plotting how to take down all your favorite characters?**

**Review if you like it, Critique if you don't.**


	4. Chapter 4

TMP 4: One By One

**Hey guys! **

**Sorry this chapter's rather short, but school work and stuff have been catching up with me. Not much activity for this one, nor any Heart Desire, but I hope y'all enjoy nonetheless. Another thing, I'm probably going on a min-hiatus after this one, because I need to focus on exams. Will be back around October!**

**Mailbox:**

**Ileana: Glad you like it! Sorry, but I'm gonna have to keep you waiting lots.**

**Awsomaniatica: Yeah. Well, I felt that in YJ they spent a lot of time treating him like a jerk, but in the YJ comics (in line with the show), they did bring up his insecurities about his appearance, so I thought I'd bring that here too.**

**BlackBatsy: You're absolutely right! As for Miss M's 'dreaming', it doesn't appear here, but I promise next chapter. PROMISE. And… it'll probably be not what you expect… (well you can tell after you've read it)**

**Guest: Yeah! I totally looking forward to reading the rest too. When I've finished writing it…**

**and thearrowflies: Frustrating! Suspenseful! Huzzah! I have done it! Glorious!**

**Thanks for the Reviews, guys, so here goes…**

**STAR Labs, Taos****  
****13 July, 6:37 MDT**

…_Unidentifiable substance…Try Again?_

Bumblebee allowed herself to groan, then she hit the enter key again. Just like the two other times previously, the new result reported failure. It was just the same everywhere; no trace of what-on-earth this thing is even supposed to be.

Dr. Palmer's help would appreciated right now, but even she pretty certain he wouldn't be able to help either. This semi-organic, possible living toxin what totally alien to the databases, and he was just the world's leading expert in molecular physics. What could he do that was any different?

"Aqualad? Ms. Bumblebee? " It was Dr. Dorado. She had never met him before today, but she had heard he was in on Zeta research at Star Labs – what was it called - The Erdel Initiative. Not that a physicist of such a field would be of much help right now.

"He's contacting someone A.T.M.," Bumblebee said as she rose from her seat, gesturing at the door behind her. "And Dr. Dorado, Karen's fine. I'm not that anal about secret identities stuff – nothing to lose, y'know." That said, she pulled back her cowl. She noticed that there was another doctor; a blonde, clean-shaven young man. Cute too, if she wasn't spoken for.

"Well, I don't you have met before, but Ms. Bumblebee, this Dr. Adam Strange. He's our biggest expert for Erdel at the moment."

"Nice to meet you," Strange greeted, holding a hand out. "Ms. –um"

"Just Karen for you too," she told him, grinning slightly. In her head, she was puzzled. Why did Kaldur drag her down from the Tower to meet a bunch of Zeta-beam experts? Perhaps recruiting the Atms help wouldn't be such a bad idea right. 

"Bumblebee." The door whirred open as Aqualad's returned, and he sounded worried.

Drawing to his side, she asked him in a low voice, "What's wrong? You've been out for some time…"

"While asking Mal to check up on Superboy, the communion was cut. I've been unable to contact either of them since."

"Mal?" Her eyes widened. She quickly tried her own communicator, frowning as she listened closely. Switching the frequencies, tried as she might, the familiar buzz was gone. "Mine's dead too."

Aqualad tightened his jaw, a dark expression cast on his face. " Batgirl informed me that Garfield was cut off halfway while she spoke with him. This cannot be a coincidence."

"And it ain't gon'na end here. We've got'ta get our butts to the Watchtower _pronto_."

"Agreed," Aqualad said, his face grim, "but this task I will take on myself. You will remain here."

Okay, this was starting to not making sense a little, _tinsy_ bit – besides everything else. "Kal, the databases in here aren't much better that the one in the Watchtower, no offense guys," – she nodded at the two scientist at her side, - "so it's pointless for me to stick around here. And why didn't we go to Gotham STAR labs instead? That's were the biology division is."

"Because we're _not_ at STAR labs to find out what the toxin is." From the strain in his voice, she could tell he was trying to patient. Breathing out deeply, he explained, "There is not database on this planet that explain what this substance, because very clearly, it is not of Earthly origin."

Bumblebee couldn't help but hang her mouth open. "Holy."

Aqualad nodded. "When I put a call to the Poseidonis' Science Center at the Watchtower, an associate of mine working there raised a possibility that the toxin was alien. Hence, nothing on Earth can tell us what it is."

Alien, huh? Looks like her instincts were right.

"However, while Earth is considered scientifically inferior to other planets, Rann has is extremely advanced in all scientific field, including biology. Hence, it is extremely likely that they would have some records of what it is."

Finally, she started catch on to his idea. "So that's what we're here for. Rann."

"I had asked Superboy to accompany us, since he had been to Rann before, and Dr. Adam Strange as well, since he certainly is more knowledgable of Rann than anyone else. But with this mystery of the _silent radio_, I'm afraid you'll only have Dr. Strange with you for this mission."

Bumblebee shook her head, insisting, "Look, 'lad, if Mal's down, I gon'na be the first on site."

"You are the science expert."

"I study molecules! Honestly, all this bio stuff isn't my field."

"Of the two of us, you are certainly better suited for this task, Karen," he countered sternly, his eyes keenly fixed on her.

Bumblebee pursed her lips. She'd much rather be with Mal – only Lord knows what trouble he could be in now. He's only been in the superhero gig, officially at least, for a couple of months now, and she was sure he got himself stuck in in bad places because of reckless decisions.

But then, the girls were counting on her.

"Good luck, Kaldur," she wished him sincerely. He gave her brief nod, before turning to leave. Bumblebee knew he was heading straight to the Zeta-Tubes, and soon, she'll be too, though to an entire different destination.

"So, gentlemen," Swinging to face the two scientist, she drew back up her cowl over eyes, "When're we leaving?"

**Watchtower **

**July 13, 7:40 EST**

"Mal?"

His question simply echoed against the empty hall. Racing over to the central control, Aqualad did a quick scan of the various holographic screens clustered together. Searching rapidly via the interface, he was relieved to see that Mal, in one piece, appearing in one of the screens, but his own muscles tensed when he noticed the battered, unconscious young man leaning against the bigger man's shoulder. That young man's facial expression was disturbingly familiar.

He would have headed to Mal's coordinates immediately, of course, if he hadn't noticed that it wasn't only crisis at hand. On the left of the display, a blinking emergency signal for the training room had been going for the last half-an-hour, with the monitor showing an insensible Lagoon Boy.

Half-an-hour...which he spent debating with himself on what action to take. Barely a month since his return, and he was already failing his team?

Cursing silently in Atlantean, he turned on his heel, dashing straight to be training rooms.

Somewhere else...

**Ivy Town, **

**13 July 8:50 EDT**

**Wendy POV**

She closed the lab door behind her. "Dr. Palmer?"

"Karen, is that you?" The man was hovering between the screen and scanner. "I'm in the process of examining the results from the collision interactions of through merger-beam-"

"Um, Doctor? It's Wendy." She gave a little chuckle, which sounded rather like a light jingle of bells. "Wendy Harris? I'm covering for Karen today."

Pausing for a moment, Dr. Palmer raised his head from his screen to gaze at her, as he tried to recall something, "Ah, yes she called in; some business with the Team, she said-"

Then, he stopped himself short, his brows creasing together, as he stood a while in thought. Finally, he asked, "Wendy, what time is it?"

"Fifteen past nine Is anything wrong?" Wendy inquired, concerned. She placed her bag in one of storage cupboards, before heading over to the lab table.

His only reply was a string of profanities that most wouldn't consider becoming for a university professor. Dropping his equipment (well, not literally. Dr. Palmer _did not_ have a death wish), he flung off his lab coat, grabbed his belonging sand dashed straight out of the door.

Hardly a moment later, he swung back in. "I'm terribly sorry, Wendy. Could you help me pack up the equipment? Especially the experimental fragments – be real careful with those. Do you mind? I'm terribly late for something-"

"Of course, Doctor," Wendy beamed with patient jocularity. "Would you like me set up anything?"

"No! Yes! Just help me run the merger-beam again, but change the ion concentration. Thanks!" With that, he disappeared.

As Wendy neatened up the lab bench, and all the equipment the doctor had so carelessly tossed aside, she couldn't help wondering what 'Team' Karen was in. Maybe it was some new junior research team. She heard some interns got to do that. Lucky Karen.

Gathering up the sample fragments the professor left behind; she took them to the storage room adjacent to the labs.

All the staff in the faculty shared the storage room. Since the other professors were on leave today, she supposed the mess in the storeroom was created entirely Dr. Palmer.

Going over to the Dr. Palmers' allocated store cupboards to keeping his 'fragments', she turned her attention to the mess. The lenses, Faraday's cup, and the most expensive stuff where kept away first, of course, after she wiped the clean those that needed wiping, and reset whatever needed resetting.

As she did, she noticed a smashed vial on the floor, surrounded by an oddly large pool of colourless liquid. Slapping on a pair of gloves before picking up the vial fragments, she was relieved to see that the label only read 'actephenone' – a relatively harmless substance. Probably broken by an incautious, and likely irresponsible chemist sometime ago.

Sweeping up the glass fragments, she went over the paper towel dispenser. Considering how much liquid was split, she decided that a good four or five towels would be needed. Pulling them out by handfuls, she couldn't help clucking her tongue when she noticed the dark brown spots scattered over it. The store was going to need to replace its equipment more often.

Chucking the ball of paper towels on to the floor, she allowed them to soak in the liquid. While waiting, she disposed the glassware in the glass bin.

When she returned to clean up the pile, she suddenly felt an odd, stinging sensation in her eyes. Blinking, slowly at first, then furiously, she couldn't clear it. It was getting into her throat too, and she was starting to cough. Vaguely, she could tell that thick, grayish smoke surrounding her. Then it suddenly made sense. It was a simple lesson she learnt in a minors course for in chemistry.

Brown spots. Bromine.

You put bromine with actophenone, what do you get? Phenacyl bromide. A.K.A. Tear gas.

She needed to get out of the lab, but bumping into cupboards made her acutely aware that she couldn't see where she was going. She tried to focus on using feeling her way out, but there was an headache that was clouding up her mind. This didn't feel right; tear gas didn't do that, did they?

Helpless and confused, she sank to the floor, tears running down her cheeks as she squeezed them tight, trying to keep the gas out. Her chest was starting to hurt, and her throat was getting dry as she kept coughing over and over.

In a few seconds, it stopped hurting, and Wendy Harris was no longer awake.

**Chicago**

**July 13, **9:15** EDT**

"C'mon, pick up you idiot," Batgirl growled in her helmet, as monotone robot voice asked her to leave a message.

Sighing, she gave the command. "End call."

"_Call ended,"_ the A.I. in her helmet informed her. Swerving past the vehicles, her face scrunched up into a tight scowl. After she checked on Garfield, she was going straight to Bludhaven. Providing the little bundle of mischief hasn't run off elsewhere.

A call to Happy Harbour High told her most clearly that he wasn't there. In a matter of fact, he did-

"_Incoming call from cell-phone. Answer?"_

She breathed out. "Finally!" To the helmet, she said, "Answer call."

In a few moments, she heard the whirring sound that told her that the call was through, "After four calls, you finally decided to pick up-"

An unexpected voice cut in. _"Me? Pick up? Girl, I'm the one doin' the calls!"_

Batgirl paused as realization sank in. Disappointment and a slight anxiety, she whispered, "Alysia?"

Alysia was her roommate in Gotham University. She was a sweet girl, though she did have rather controversial views on topics, especially social issues. Still, Alysia asked fewer questions than her father about the whereabouts of Barbara Gordon at unholy hours of the night, so Batgirl opted to stay there instead.

Not that fact that held at the moment.

"_I read your text only after I fried you a nice, crispy little omelette, cut you some apples and made you a coffee – a coffee from created on the backs of overworked factory-farm in Kenya!"_

Batgirl sighed, as she avoided collision with another vehicle. Sometimes Alysia's crazy activism made her a bit over-dramatic. The digital map in front of her bike indicated that she was near that John Jones' apartment. She needed to throw her roommate off as soon as she could.

"It's from Thailand, Alysia, and it's a reputable company. "

Alysia's voice was so blaring that Batgirl had to wince. _"It doesn't have a fair-trade seal! Anyway, so why you bailing out of me, eh? I thought we agreed that Barbara Gordon needed to get out more."_

'Barbara Gordon needs to get out more, but Batgirl _really_ needs some sleep,' Batgirl thought rather ruefully. She racked through her brain to think of an excuse, any excuse, to throw at Alysia. It wasn't coming out very well, because the traffic was getting messy; splitting her attention was getting tough.

'Keep talking, keep the opponent distracted,' Batman's advice came to her. While largely unrelated, it did help. "Alysia, are you late for class again?

"_So what if I am?"_

"…Nevermind."

An odd thought came thought came to Batgirl's mind; one about beverages. M'gann was holding the glass shard from Artemis' glass, presumably. She had probably suspected that was the source of the poison, which was accurate. The person who assaulted Artemis didn't bother hiding the evidence; maybe they knew that the toxin couldn't be treated, so it didn't matter; or they maybe wanted someone to find it.

That someone they knew to be _M'gann_.

Then something clicked Batgirl's head. If M'gann was supposed to find it, then explosion… the fire…

The pieces of the puzzle were fitting together now, and the full picture sent a terrible sense of dread down Batgirl.

"_-Well, if you're not coming back, I suppose I'll have to eat all this myself. And drink your horrid coffee. Can't waste the hard labour of those poor workers-"_

"Alysia, listen to me," Batgirl interrupted firmly. "Throw all the food out."

"_What?"_

"Just trust me on this." She drew up to the small apartment building by the road. "What plans did you make for us today?"

"_Um… we'll go for some lectures, then we'll cut halfway to go shopping at the new mall-"_

"After you get rid of the food, leave the apartment immediately. Do not touch any of my belongings or go to my room. Take a day off from school, but don't go to that mall. What's a place that you weren't thinking of taking me today?"

"_Um…this awful café downtown? Well, the cakes are okay-" _

That sounded safe enough to Barbara. "Go there, and stay there till I call you again, at least till this blows over."

Alysia started to sound frightened. _"Roomie, what's going on?" _

"I'm not exactly sure," Batgirl replied hesitantly, as gazed up at the windows, hoping against hope that she was wrong. "I'll explain later, okay? Just do what I say, and nothing will happen. Hopefully. Got'ta go."

She hung up, removing her helmet as she did. Climbing up the fire escape of the building, she finally stopped at the correct apartment window. A little fiddling with the lock allowed her to open the window with ease.

Searching through the rooms hurriedly, she finally found Garfield. Picking his limp form, she was glad to make out his heartbeat, but the half-eaten cookie lying next to him made it clear she was too late.

She clenched her teeth, wishing desperately she could kick herself for not seeing from the start. She pressed the button on her communicator, but she wasn't surprised to be greeted by only silence. She removed it and threw it away. It wasn't going to help her or Garfield right now. Or anyone else.

Right from the start, the explosives were meant for M'gann. Artemis was not _the_ target. She was _a_ target.

The Team, every single member, they were the targets.

**A/N:Okay, I cheated. I don't acetphenone reacts that quickly with bromine. And phenacyl bromide (a type of tear gas) is actually an aerosol, not really a gas. It's just a story, not a science journal. **

**Originally, Bart and Jaime were supposed to appear here, but I haven't time to fine tune it yet. Hope you guys can wait. **

**If you don't know who Wendy Harris is, she's one of Superboy's and Miss M. childhood friends from Happy Harbour, and she's the same university as them too.**

**See ya in October!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! I've been gone for like two months. Sorry! Project stuff's been keeping me busy after exams. **

**This chapter is really much longer than my usual length. Hope it makes for it. Somehow…**

**Mailbox:**

**Guest – (checks calendar) Err… yes I did.**

**A rough summary of the previous chapters:**

Artemis and M'gann are both in comatose after an attack on Artemis' House, poisoned by an unknown toxin. Batgirl is investigating into who the attacker/s are, while Bumblebee and Aqualad are finding out more about the toxin. Still, things are going downhill when Beast Boy and Superboy got attacked… in their civvies! Something's hacked into Watchtower too.

What _is_ going on?

**Just a note, the last bit ends up being of a song fic. Don't worry, it's not that silly. I hope…**

**And here goes the story.**

* * *

TMP 5: Broken Telephone

"Why are we doing this again?" she asked.

As an afterthought, she decided that perhaps adding 'again' was misleading. After all, from what she learnt from watching television, the English word 'again' would imply that they had mentioned the reason to here before, whereas in truth this wasn't so.

Well, the first time she asked, Wally had replied, "Because we're teenagers. And we're crazy!". Then she put the question to Robin, who shrugged and said gravely, "YOLO, Miss M., YOLO." Both times, she couldn't say she really understood it.

Six of them were fighting the icy winds, trudging slowly but surely up the exterior face of Mount Justice. The snow that fell formed thick slope around the 'mountain', such that it was possible for one to get from the foot of the hill all the way to top. That, M'gann understood, was the course of action today. The 'whys' of the matter, of course, still remained a mystery.

This time it was Wally answering again. "Because it's stupid, pointless and going to get us in lots of trouble. Brrrr!" He shuddered, at about ten times the speed of normal human would.

"In other words, a whole lot of fun," Robin added, smirking. He was wearing a black-tinted goggles instead of his usual sunglasses - in case it cracked in the cold he said, - but M'gann was sure that if she could see them, they would be glinting with mischief.

"Or maybe we're just dumb enough to try Wally's ideas," Artemis remarked crisply, drawing her hood over her head. Despite her snarky tone, M'gann detected a note of good humour too.

The rebutt was quick and indignant. "My ideas aren't dumb!"

"Y'a know, she said we are dumb for following your ideas, not that your ideas are dumb," Robin pointed out.

"Oh."

"But yeah. Your ideas are dumb."

"Wha-who's side are you on!"

As joking retorts and rebukes went and forth between the earthly trio, M'gann slowed her pace she glanced at the two lagging behind. Connor was the furthest back; with a rope swung across his shoulders, he was dragging an old-bumped-up car, provision courtesy of Wally. Of course, the latter had yet to fully divulge why it was absolutely important for the clone to carry the creaking junk of a vehicle all the way to the peak of Mount Justice. Connor didn't seem to mind much though, being absorbed in watching the snowflakes falling around himself. It warmed her heart to see the smile, - or the hint of a smile, as it always was with Connor,- on his face. Snow somehow did bring the best out of people, just like TV used to show.

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" She drew up to the Atlantean's side, after noting he had remained largely silent for most of the trip. "The snow, I mean."

"Indeed it is," Kaldur agreed, as they continued trudging upward. He wore only a light-blue sweatshirt over his usual garb and scarf around his neck, unlike the thickly padded trio ahead. His Atlantean physiology granted greater resistance to cold, he had explained earlier when Artemis had asked. "Even though I have seem winter on surface-world at least four times, snow somehow bears a special quality none in my home could replace."

"Mars doesn't have snow either, but I wish it did." M'gann lifted her palm up to catch some falling flakes. She didn't need winter wear anymore than Kaldur did, but it was her first winter on Earth, so she went all out; winter boots to earmuffs, and all from shopping rather than morphing her organic clothes into them. There was something nice about having an unchanging wardrobe at times.

Seeing that Kaldur didn't really want to talk much, M'gann dropped her pace, allowing her boyfriend to catch up with her.

"How d'ya doing?" She asked, as they trod side by side.

"Alright, I guess," he shrugged nonchalantly. "Dragging that's,"- he jerked his head at the beat-up automobile, -" a breeze, but I think the breeze is gon'na get me cold - achoo!" It was rather funny - not Connor sneezing itself, but his reaction to his own sneeze. His expression of utter disbelief and disgust at his action made M'gann burst into a fit of giggles.

"And I thought Kryptonians were immune to common illnesses," she commented, an amused smile curled on her face as she helped him re-adjusted his scarf.

"Half-Kryptonian," he corrected absently, as he watched her gloved finger struggling to tie the knot, before sneezing again. "I hate colds. "

M'gann gave a sly grin. "I don't know about that. You look kind'a cute when you sneeze."

All he returned was a disgruntled grunt, but intuitively M'gann was certain he was going try to sneeze again, just so she could watch. She knew he liked making her happy, and he knew just how to do it. It was as if their minds were linked, or something.

A call from ahead broke the moment. "Hey, guys! We're here!"

'Here' was the peak of Mt. Justice. As Wally and Robin helped Connor handle the beat-up car, M'gann took a glance down at Happy Harbour. The snow was falling thickly, but just enough school to call it a snow day and not more. Up on the peak, she watched tiny specks in the distance, wondering what they were doing, wondering what they were thinking; whether they loved the snow, or hated it, or just indifferent to it. The latter two were obviously missing out.

"Okay, now are you going to tell what you're doing?" Her thoughts were interrupted by Artemis.

"Fine, fine, you're so impatient!" Wally replied rather impatiently himself. Then he turned his frown into a flirty grin, beckoning her over. "Of course, I love you that way."

Artemis, blushing, returned the grin and joining his side. Robin made retching sounds, before groaned loudly, "Get a room!"

It was Kaldur who threw the question next. "Why are we here?"

Robin, seeing Wally was otherwise occupied, decided to finally unveil the truth. "It's very simple actually. What we're gon'na do is climb onto that," - he pointed at the car, or whatever was left of it, -"then we ride it down the mountain."

"What!"

"On the car? This is nuts!"

"...So we _are_ trying to kill ourselves?"

"C'mon, guys, dry up!" Wally said his stunned, and a little angry, friends. "It'll be fun. It's kinda like bobsled riding, just, y'know, on a car."

The four appeared rather unconvinced at Wally's wheedling. Then, Connor broke the silence with an irritated groan. "Let's get this over with."

All of them got themselves onto the car - Wally was very specific with 'onto' and not 'in'. Artemis and Kaldur got themselves on the car hood, while M'gann and Connor took the rear. Wally, of course, was forced to take the front with his partner-in-crime.

From Artemis cursing and swearing, M'gann sensed some anxiety and anger, directed at her boyfriend undoubtedly, while Kaldur was quite calm. She noted, however, he formed something looking vaguely like a knife from his water-barriers, before plunging it into the car hood. "Insurance," he explained when she and Connor looked in askance.

Connor immediately dug into the metal of the rear, creating a handhold for himself, while M'gann one of her hands into a hook of sort, using to hold onto the metal frame of the rear window. Artemis searched around for something to grab, before finally settling on the frame of the side window.

Wally yelled, "Is everyone ready?"

"We're gon'na die," Artemis muttered, with a touch of melodrama.

Connor growled, "How are we gon'na to launch this exactly? Because I will not help you push it down."

"M'gann could push us off with her telekinesis," Kaldur offered as a suggestion, but tightened his lip when he saw Connor glare at him.

The Martian suddenly sat straight up. "Where's Robin?"

At that moment, it was realized that the boy wonder indeed was missing. Hardly a moment later, they heard some puffing in the cold wind as Robin dashed over and hopped onto the car front.

"Are you guys ready?" He asked the same question as Wally.

"We're gon'na die," Artemis repeated, with increased melancholy.

"How _are_ we launching this?" Connor demanded again.

For moment, M'gann thought the whole question cycle would repeat again, when everyone heard a resounding "Boom!" from behind. All heads turned. The snow shook violently, jerking the car off the flat peak, down the slope. Behind them, it seemed like wave of snow was approached.

"That's our launch, guys," the smallest of them answered. He whipped a batarang and plunge into the metal front, gripping it tightly.

Wally glanced around before crying in dismay, "Why does everyone have a hold except me!"

Within seconds, they were ripping down into the snow, with a mini-avalanche. Not dying here seemed impossible.

A chorus of yells and shriek came as the beat-up car shot down the hill. Screaming her heard out in both fear and excitement, M'gann tightened her grip around her boyfriend's wrist. Part of her really questioned what insanity lay in the minds of her Earth friends, while another part knew she would never trade this for anything in the world.

* * *

**Watchtower**

**13 July, 10:00 EST**

When both of them heard zeta-tube announce the arrival of two more teammates, subconsciously perhaps, they eagerly rushed over to greet them. Only when they saw the limp body of one in the arms of the other, did their faces fall again.

"I'll bring him in," Aqualad said immediately, taking Garfield's unconscious form from Batgirl's arms. Turning on his heel, he hurried away to the Watchtower infirmary.

With a grim expression, Batgirl faced Mal Duncan. "How many?"

"What? How d-ya?" Mal broke off as he watched Batgirl make her way to central interface. The dark glare that crossed her face easily reminded him of her mentor.

Opening up a few more screens, she repeated, "How many?"

Still fazed, he replied, "Two. L'gann and Connor. So how did you know there'd more?"

"It's a directed attack at the Team," she answered. Squinting at one of the blue windows, she asked, "All the comms are down, aren't they?"

"Pretty much. 'Lad and I've been trying to crack through, besides damage control. We can't call anyone, nor JLA, not family, even on the emergency lines in the Watchtower," Mal supplied absently, trying to absorb what Batgirl had just said. When he fully realised its significance his jaw dropped. "Wait, someone's _attacking_ the Team? Who? Why?"

"Probably the Light. But the 'who' and 'why' doesn't concerning me as much as the 'how'," Batgirl replied, eyes still fixed on screen. "For now, warning everyone is priority."

Mal still seemed a bit thrown off by the revelation. "We could do it individually, but if this is that really serious, we're gon'na need to something faster.

Pausing from work for a moment, Batgirl turned to Mal. "Could I borrow your phone?"

Mal automatically whipped the desired item and handed it over. "We tried it just now. It didn't really work."

Nonetheless, Batgirl still tried keying a few numbers. Then, she removed a phone from her belt, whether it was the legendary 'Batphone' or her own, Mal wasn't sure. After fiddling it for a while, she grimly returned his phone.

Shaking his head as he pocketed it, Mal said, "No matter who we called, or whatever we did, we couldn't receive or send any calls or messages to anyone. Any form of Internet communication's dead. Someone hacked into our system good and well."

Batgirl's hard expression suddenly turned to surprise, her green eyes widened. "Wait a moment."

She bent her head, scroll through her phone. "I've been trying to call Nightwing for the last the hour or so. He didn't pick up – it probably means that the hack affects all Team members, far and wide but,"- showing him her call list, - " I did manage to _receive_ a call from my roommate. So that means-"

Mal caught on immediately. "The Team can still receive calls from external phones!"

"Then one of us must do that immediately." Mal wasn't sure when Kaldur had returned, boy he was a quiet one. He could have easily snuck up on them and stabbed them in the-

Wait, where did that thought come from?

"One of us should go down and make the call," the Atlantean instructed. "Are there still any of those – what are they – telephones booths?"

"There are still some in old town Gotham, but borrowing off a stranger should work too, though someone's gon'na be annoyed at us for busting their data." Batgirl shrugged.

"I'll do that," volunteered Mal. He noticed Aqualad shifted his gaze to him, and he couldn't place he felt uncomfortable.

"Batgirl, go down to the Batcave. Maybe the Bat computer system have something that can by-pass this hack, and even trace it."

"It would be nice to know where it's coming from," Batgirl agreed.

"I'm going to Central City. If all else fails, I believe Impulse and Jay Garrick can assist us in spreading the warning."

"Set then."

Mal stopped to settle the interface, while he observed out the corner of his eye that Batgirl heading to Zeta-Tube, with the Aqualad trailing close to behind.

He wasn't sure how he felt towards his new leader. He hadn't known Kaldur long sometime before the Atlantean had supposedly gone rogue. He had heard from others that he was firm, quiet, but kind and horribly compassionate. Of course, his opinions of the older boy plummeted when the latter joined the light, and dislike turned to hatred after Artemis' 'Death'.

Now that everything was cleared up, he knew should re-adjust his thought accordingly, but he couldn't. The old impressions were hard to get rid of.

He heard the familiar whirring sound of the Zeta-Tube after Batgirl keyed in the coordinates. It was only a sudden cry from Aqualad caused Mal to jerk his head up. The former was dragging her away from the Zeta-Tube. Near the three tubes, white-coloured gas was spewing out the pipes.

"Mal, close it off!" The Atlantean called anxiously.

Quickly, Mal keyed in the commands, cordoning off the gas from the rest of them.

Effectively shutting out all the Zeta-Tubes.

Hurriedly, he headed over to where the two were lying. Batgirl, though shocked was still very much conscious. Breathless, they stared up breathless at the huge metal wall that had just saved them all from death-like sleep.

"It was after I punched in the code for the Batcave. " Batgirl was the first to speak.

All Mal could say was, "Huh?"

"It was meant for me." She bit her lip, something she never did. "A trap, for me."

* * *

**El Paso****  
****July 13, 12:44 MST**

Jaime was sitting alone at a bench near the basketball court. Everyone was at lunch now, so the place was deserted. Jaime didn't need to buy lunch: he had some awesome tacos packed for him by his mom sitting in a paper bag on his left, but his reasons for not joining his friends in the canteen right now due to stack of sheets.

"D,F, E, F, E. Hey look, a C! Great going, Reyes."

Jaime tossed the sheets behind him, before dropping his face in his hands.

A raspy, harsh voice spoke in his mind, _"Your stress hormones seems to rising, Jaime Reyes. It is suggested to you take in deep breaths to calm yourself."_

"No kidding, _hermano_," Jaime replied out loud. He could talk mentally but out loud felt better most of the time. That's why he chose to sit on this staircase, facing an empty grass-field. Most other kids at school were at having their lunch now, but after receiving his results, Jaime didn't have much an appetite.

"You and I are on speaking terms, my hero-ing gig is going straight, but if I can't get straight A-s, my mum's gon'na ground me."

"_Error: Unable to process the relation between a specified area of solid surface is related to academic achievements."_

"Remind to get you slang dictionary, Scarab," Jaime remarked dryly. "After one for short-form on social media."

Straightening it out the sheets, Jaime started read the scores to himself again, as if reciting the grades over and over would magically turn them into the desired grades.

_"There is no logic behind such a proposal."_

"It isn't a 'proposal', _ese_, and definitely not logical" explained Jaime silently in head, as he rearranged the papers. "More like just... wishful thinking."

"What then would be the purpose of such thoughts?" Though its tone was sounded harsh and rasping, its inquiry was genuinely out of curiosity.

"I d'unno, maybe ... to make to me feel better?"

Rather stiffly, the scarab noted, "Negative. Scans indicate that stress-level are still high."

"Well, I tried." Jaime sighed unhappily.

Shifting back to its neutral tone - which was pretty aggressive sounding anyway, - the scarab informed him quickly, _"An object traveling at extremely high levels velocity will be arriving here in five seconds. Defensive measures suggested."_

"An object at what!" Jaime found himself exclaiming out loud, before clamping a hand over his mouth. Fortunately, the court was really deserted.

Hardly a moment later, a strong gust of wind, together with streaks of blue and brown, went by, blowing all his papers away. Jaime didn't bother getting up though. Instead, he just heaved another sigh.

As he expected, the sheets of papers suddenly disappeared from the ground, as he heard a voice from his side, "Dude, I'm not sure what the education standards for the pas-er, present, but I'm pretty sure that your grades ain't pretty."

A brown-haired boy, dressed in a blue cardigan and dirt-brown pants, was flipping through the sheets, muttering commentary so rapidly that to Jaime it only sounded like the squeaking of chipmunks. "Bart, I have no idea what you're saying."

"What I'm saying," the boy explained at normal speed, jabbing dramatically at one of the sheets, "is how could you not know that north pole of a magnet points at the south pole?"

Jaime squinted at the question the boy was pointing at, then raised a brow. "_Hermano_, I got that one correct."

In disbelief, Bart re-examined the sheet. "Oh. Haha, whoops. Ahem." He flipped rapidly through the pages. "Aha! Well, how can you not know that F=ma?"

"Bart, this isn't funny."

"-It's like the most basic thing in the world! Actually," - tapping his chin thoughtfully,- "F=ma isn't really true. Eventually in -"

"Bart!"

The boy stopped short, so shocked by the sharpness of Jaime's tone such that the latter immediately regretted it.

Rubbing his neck awkwardly, he tried to excuse himself, "Teachers have been yelling at me all day, my parents going to yell at me, and I've been yelling at myself. Just don't- well, -I'd appreciate it if you didn't join the shouting match."

Bart stared at him seriously, then sank down next to him. "I should be the one to apologise; not my place to be scoffing at your cra - er, grades. I'm supposed to be your friend, after all." His eyes suddenly lit up. "Tell you what! I'll be your-"

Jaime didn't really catch the last part of Bart's sentence, whatever it was, because at that moment the speedster had zoomed off. He hardly taken another breath when the brown-haired boy was back, armed with a pencil, a writing pad, and a familiar aluminum-wrapped packet tucked under his arm. The brown-haired boy sat upright, his pad on his lap, and his pencil poised high, announcing, "Therapy Session!"

Jaime was dumbfounded, his eyes wide as saucers.

"So, Jaime," Bart begun in a serious tone, a wicked grin on his face, "tell me, how do you _feel_?"

"Um, Bart?" Jaime asked with quizzical expression. "This is supposed to help because-"

"Weeeell," dropping back into his normal voice, he cocked his to a side as he considered the question. "Talking about your problems is supposed to help you purge your bad feelings, and - clear your body of negative _chi _- and improve your mental health!"

In his head, the scarab hissed, _"There is no logic in the Impulse's argument. There is not even a logical flow at all!"_ Somehow, it hadn't gotten around calling Bart 'Kid Flash' yet. Jaime sometimes wondered it, because if it was because it didn't have a name-changing function installed in it, or it just had stubbornness issues.

Folding his arms, Jaime asked the question. "What are you really doing here Bart?

"School's a drag, so I skipped."

The other boy gawked at him. "You're playing hooky!"

"Relax, _ese_, I got Jay to call in sick for me. " – seeing the eyebrow that Jaime raised at him, - "Of course, he thinks I'm really sick and-"

"You will be if you're running with your stomach full of _my_ Chicken Whizzies!" Jaime pointed out, curtly nodding at the packet that Bart was ripping open that moment.

"Hehe," Bart gave a sheepish grin, as he uncomfortably took a crunch, "how d'ya know?"

His brow rose even higher. "You always steal them from my locker. How could I _not_ know?"

"Good point," Bart acknowledged thoughtfully. Holding out the packet to Jaime, he gave a wide grin. "Whizzie? They cure depression."

Rolling his eyes, Jaime resigned took a handful, asking, "So, what are you depressed about then, chicken-whizzie thief?"

He must have struck a sore-point somewhere, because the curt reply was just "Hey, we're talkin' about me, or talkin' about you?"

Both munched whizzies in silence, before Jaime finally spoke, "My grades really suck."

"Kind'a noticed that."

"No, the thing is, it really, really sucks. It's not just that my mum will ground, - that's only temporary, - it's just that may grades have been plummeting ever since, well,-"

"Joining the Team? Yeah, I hear y'a," Bart agreed. He handed the packet to Jaime, who took unwittingly, before grabbing another handful.

"It's actually more like ever since the scarab decided to stick itself to my spine." He paused as he raised another cracker to his mouth, before adding, "No offence, _hermano_."

"None taken," Bart replied, not knowing the boy wasn't talking to him. He grabbed the packet back, tipping the bag to get more of the scraps. "Man, you need to buy the bigger ones if we keep sharing."

Jaime just ignored what he said. "You know what they say about grades – you get them straights-As, you build yourself a new life, you climb out of poverty. Not that I'm in poverty, mind, but I'm aware that my dad's garage isn't gon'na feed the family forever." Hanging his head down, he sighed. "My dad made very clear that if anything ever did happen to him, I'll be the man of the family. Look after my family; my sis and mum, that is. Living in this neighbourhood," - he gestured slightingly around him, "-that's probably the only thing that kept me out the gangs." Jaime made a cynical snort. "But if I don't get that grade – it's just that, - I want so much better _mi familia_. "

"Hmmph?" Bart grunted. He seemed distracted.

"You haven't been listening, have you?" Jaime accused, more resigned than actually angry. "So much for being therapy sessions."

Bart gave what sounded like a forced chuckle. "Sorry, _ese_, but suddenly I don't feel good."

Jaime took a quick scan of his friend, whom he realised suddenly appeared extremely exhausted and pale, unlike the hyperactive speedster just seconds ago. The boy was bent over, his hands propping up his chin. Jaime notices beads of sweat rolling down the kid's forehead, his face scrunched up like he was in battle.

"Are you al-" He cut himself short when he felt a sudden wave of dizziness attacked him. Leaning himself against concrete step, he sent a mental message to the artificial intelligent embedded in his abdomen. "_Ese_, is that you?"

"_There seems to be an abrupt increase of foreign substances that have entered your body. Initiating biological defense maneuvers." _

With that said, Jaime found himself hurled forward, as he begun regurgitating everything he had eaten that morning onto the concrete of the basketball court.

"The basketball team's gon'na kill me," he remarked dryly as he observed his stomach contents on the ground, wiping his mouth with back of his hand. Then he hurled again.

When the second volley stopped, he heard Bart's cries of anguish behind him. Spinning back, he ran over the trembling boy. The streams of sweat were flowing steadily as the boy groaned again, hugging himself tighter.

"_What's happening to him?"_ Jaime screamed in his head.

"_His body system are attempting to lyse the foreign bodies attacking his body,"_ the scarab's voice informed him, emotionless as ever.

"_English, or espanôl, no in between!" _Jaime snapped in his mind, _"What's attacking him?"_ An acute pain shot up his head, provided by the scarab no doubt. He stumbled over to his friend, reaching out to help, even if he hadn't the faintest of what to do. _"What's attacking us?"_

The scarab didn't speak for a moment, and all Jaime heard what Bart's cries of pain, even though he tried to suppress them. He tried again, "_Can you help him? Help us?" His_ voice was desperate, even if it was just in his head.

The brown-haired boy was shivering furiously one moment, then he relaxed, keeling over, his skinny self slumped against the steps, limp.

Jaime would have cried out, but then his body was starting to break down._ "Do something!"_

No reply.

"_Aren't you supposed to be some near-indestructible alien technology? Don't tell me you don't have something to fix this…"_

No reply.

"_Help-"_, another surge of pain. He staggered back to the steps, gripping the rails for balance. His thoughts were getting incoherent. _"Dude-hermano-por-favour-urrgh-"_

Black patches were clouding his vision when he finally heard in his head, _"I'm sorry, ese, but there is too much Anti-Reach tech in your body-"_

Jaime wondered what Anti-Reach was, and where that raspy voice was from, but he didn't think too hard. His head, and everywhere else, was hurting too much.

"_To channel … your immune systems, the….shut down…"_

Jaime couldn't understand what the strange voice was saying, but he couldn't care. He just wanted to close his eyes and-

"_Goodbye, Jaime Reyes."_

He didn't remember crashing down on the steps.

* * *

**Dakota City****  
****July 13, 14:56 ****C****DT**

"So, you haven't explained where you've been for the last 2 months, haven't answered my calls, and you expect me to fix this thing?"

Virgil sighed, contemplating if he should interject and deciding against it.

"I thought we were _friends_!" Richie still seemed rather agitated, as he fiddled and fumbled with the phone, doing who knows what. "And you tell _friends_ things – hey, what's your passcode?"

"7375," Virgil answered, rolling his eyes. He hoped Richie would do a little less ranting, and more fixing.

"As I was saying," Richie continued, still furious as ever, as fingers flew across the touchscreen. "You suddenly ran off, disappeared out of nowhere, no rhyme or reason. Police came to the school, interviewing all of us. It was freaky, okay!" The boy suddenly slammed the phone onto the table, with a slightly crazed expression. "It was like some kind of CSI episode. Some guys cornered me, and there was a guy with glasses who asked if-"

Virgil cleared his throat pronouncedly. "Um, my phone?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it," Richie waved his friend away. For a moment, there was peace and quiet as the blond forget why he was made at his friend. As twiddling with the phone for another five minutes, Richie asked Virgil, "You sure that you didn't bust the data?"

"No," Virgil answered shortly. After a thoughtful pause, he added, "though I may have _over-charged_ it."

"That would kill your battery-life, not your connection," Richie frowned. He scratched his head. "I can't work out what's the issue. As far as I can tell, you either have some really big _virus-slash-hack-slash-virus-and-hack_ that's corrupted your phone connection, _or-", _shoving the phone back in Virgil's hands_, _"-your phone doesn't like you."

Virgil was unamused. "Thanks, dude."

Richie shrugged. "No prob." He ran off shortly.

When the blond boy disappeared around the corner, Virgil glanced around before he tried again. Carefully, he shot a small bolt of lightning into the phone, then he checked again. The phone battery was back on, and connection indicated that it was working. However, when he tried putting through another call, it still didn't work.

Virgil sighed. He supposed it was time to get a new phone. This one probably died off during the time he was 'away'.

"Hey, dude!" He heard Richie call somewhere behind,"I'm still mad at you!"_  
_

Vigril sighed again, sticking his phone back in his hoodie pocket. It was gon'na be a _long_ day.

* * *

"What are you thinking about?"

Her head jerked up. "Sorry?"

"Nothin' big," he shrugged, "just wondering what you're thinking about."

"Oh," she replied, looping a red strand behind her ear, a shy smile on her lips. "Just thinking how lucky we are that Batman just let us off with a warning. I'd guessed he wouldn't even let us come for the winter dance."

Her boyfriend returned a smirk, that was perhaps too cheerful. "Well, it was Wally's idea, and Robin was really the only one who supported it. Serves them right." Seeing her glass was empty, he gently removed it from her fingers, refilling it then handing it back.

"Why, thank you!" She said, beaming as she took it. She was pleased to note that Connor seemed slightly embarrassed by that the gentlemanly gesture was noted.

"Sure, you're welcome," he gruffly muttered, quickly turning away. M'gann just chortled as linked arms with him.

They just stood together a while, watching the other students dancing, or whatever it was they were doing, around the Happy Harbour gym. Some of their schoolmates, Wendy and Marvin, were waltzing around rather seriously, while Karen and Mal just focused on moving themselves to the beat.

M'gann rested her head on Connor's shoulder, and was glad when she felt his arm wrap tighter around her waist. Neither of them said much, but they didn't need to. Each other's company was enough.

The song then ended, and the master of ceremonies announced something, which M'gann didn't quite catch, then a slow ballad started to play.

She felt Connor straighten up, and immediately looked up. His face was held a mixture of disbelief and amusement.

"What is it?" She asked, mystified about what he could be thinking of. He didn't reply, so she nudged him lightly in the ribs.

He was jolted back to reality. "Oh, what?"

"You seemed a million miles away just now," she commented jokingly. "What's on your mind?"

"Oh, um...," he paused for a moment in thought. Then, he answered, "I've heard this song before. It's some oldie. Superman introduced it to me."

"He did?" M'gann lit up in interest. Not everyday you heard about the Man of Steel's music taste. She waited for him to continue.

"Yeah. Apparently it's kind of a special song for him and his fiance. Y'know, that reporter lady."

"Aww, that's rather sweet," she cooed in delight.

Connor just grunted in scorn. "Well, he's the sappy sort."

"Well, I'm pretty sappy myself," M'gann declared, wrapping herself closer to him.

Connor gave another grunt, but this one sounded less derisive than the first. Hardly a moment later, he blurted out, "Do you wan'na dance?"

M'gann startled slightly at his question,blinking. She must have heard wrongly, because Connor had just…

Seeing him go red, she knew for certain he did ask it, but he would be too shy to ask again. So with wide grin, she accepted.

Both of them joined the floor, taking up a casual waltz style, swaying slowly to song.

"_Can you read my mind?__  
__Do you know what it is you do to me?__  
__Don't know who you are,__  
__Just a friend from another star."_

"Yeah, it's really old-school," Connor remarked brusquely, breaking the silence.

M'gann laughed at stoic he seemed. "I think it's a sweet song. Pretty romantic."

"It's from some old movie in the 1970s. Not sure what it was about."

The lady in the radio continued to sing,

"_Can you read my mind?__  
__Can you picture the things I'm thinking of?__  
__Wondering why you are__  
__All the wonderful things you are"_

Just as the song launched into its next verse, M'gann noted that first line bothered her especially. She paused for a moment, trying to place exactly of what exactly disturbed her.

"Is something wrong?" Connor had noticed the change in her expression.

"Nothing." She shot a smile back at him, but in her head, it kept coming at her, - the strange discomfort that she couldn't shed. She cast it aside, focusing instead on staring into Connor's blue eyes, as they glided across the floor with the instrumental.

"_Will you look at me quivering__  
__Like a little girl shivering?__  
__You can see right through me"_

He was drawing her closer, their faces almost touching. Somehow they had forgotten to dance.

"_If you need a friend,__  
__I'm the one to fly to,__  
__If you need to be loved, __  
__Here I am, read my mind!"_

Just when their lips were lips inches away, M'gann couldn't help but be struck by that line again. Reluctantly, she pulled back.

Connor was surprised, then concerned. "What's wrong?"

M'gann considered telling him, then she asked herself why she needed to tell him at all. Couldn't he just work it out instinctively or something?

No. That made no sense, she chided herself. How on Earth was Connor know anything about how she was feeling if she didn't tell him?

"M'gann, what's on your mind?"

She tried to frame exactly what was wrong in words, but she couldn't really do that when she didn't really know herself.

"_Read my mind…"_

The song had ended, but M'gann still didn't know why she felt the way she did. Decidedly, she pushed it away.

"It's nothing."

**Hope you guys enjoyed it! Sorry if it takes forever for the attacks to finish. I hoping they finish by Chapter 7. **

**I don't know why Jaime and Bart took up so much space. If you ask, no I don't ships bros. It's ruins the bromance. Duh.**

**If you don't recognise it, the song is 'Read my Mind' by Maureen McGovern, more famously known as the Superman theme song from the 1970s movie. It was supposed to be a songfic idea for M'gann and Connor (I mean, it fits them! Especially M'gann! Just look at the words!), but I thought, 'heh, why not put it here'.**

**By the way, do you guys understand M'gann's 'dream'? Do you disagree with it? I wanna hear your thoughts, because making M'gann's 'dream' was especially difficult for me.**

**Another point, in the previous chapter, Batgirl's roommate, Alysia, indeed exists in the Batgirl New 52 comics, so I didn't invent her. **

**Expect the next chapter in November. I'm sorry, but project work is killing me.**

**Review if you like, Critique if you don't.**


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